Panther: The Comeback Cat
“If called by a panther, don’t anther,” said Ogden Nash, and wildlife professionals are heeding his advice…for better or worse. Randolph County, Missouri. Farm country. November 2012. 2:00 a.m. A no-nonsense, kick-ass, bread baking, stew...
Roosevelt and the Rough Riders
Roosevelt’s cowboy cavalry, the Rough Riders, and their victory at the Battle of San Juan Hill made Roosevelt the most famous man in America in 1898. Back East, Theodore Roosevelt co-chaired a commission to beautify Niagara Falls and rooted out corruption from...
Life Among Serpents
There’s nothing like a snake to make a man sit up and pay attention.
A Gift of Water and Wind
Three-fifths of the world is water and the wind courses over all of it. So when Pappy gave me that 10-foot bateau, he gave me the world. The first swell smacked the port quarter, sent green water clean over the wheelhouse. Aboard Maggie C, a 26-foot Maine Lobsterman,...
True to the Bird: An Oysterman’s Sporting Legacy
Oysterman and artist, Gilbert Maggioni, married late and had no children. He passed his legacy to two young men, William Rhett of Beaufort and Grainger McKoy of Sumter. Gilbert Maggioni was an ornery old cuss most people said. He cussed the weather and he cussed the...
Scents of Love
A scent can conjure up emotions and even specific memories. In the brain, smell is the closest to memory; in the heart, the closest to love. She meditated. She would not eat the venison I brought her. She worshiped some Hindu holy man whose name I wish I could forget....
A Hurricane, a Double Gun and a Pilgrimage
The hurricane roared through like a runaway train, like a Seaboard freight with a stuck throttle. Fifteen inches of rain in fifteen hours, wind a-hundred-plus-Jesus, tornados on the back side, it tore hell out of the piney ridges and swamp-ground hardwoods in between....
Good Dogs Buried
How many good dogs you gonna bury before one buries you? Blue weighed 90 pounds, with webbed feet big as biscuits, long legs and a deep chest, the biggest Lab bitch I ever saw, out of Tomahawk, Wisconsin, from a kennel of field champions. An undertaker gave her away....